Best of
Asian-Literature

1983

Crystal Boys


Pai Hsien-yung - 1983
    A-qing, the adolescent hero, comes from an impoverished family. His father casts him out after learning that his son is gay. A-qing drifts into New Park, a gay hangout in Taipei, and begins his life as a hustler. He meets other boys living on the street, also forsaken by their families: Little Jade, who is constantly searching for his unknown father; Mousey, an orphan and petty thief; and Wu Min, a shy tender kid, who attempts suicide when discarded by a middle-aged man. These four boys become fast friends and are taken under the protection of Chief Yang, a fiftyish gay guru in the Park. The boys begin to build a family of their own. Meanwhile, A-qing meets Dragon Prince, whose passionate and faithful love for Phoenix Boy has become a legend of the Park...The second part of the novel deals with the Cozy Nest, a gay bar run by Chief Yang, where the boys and other homosexual exiles have found refuge. The bar is sponsored by Papa Fu, whose young soldier son had shot himself when his homosexuality was exposed.In Taiwan, the gay community is known as the buoliquan, literally "glass community," while the individuals are called "glass boys" or "Crystal Boys."Crystal Boys was first published in Taiwan and has since appeared in Hong Kong and in mainland China: two editions (Beijing and Harbin) were published in 1987. A film, Outcasts, based on the novel and directed by Yu Kan-Ping (1986) is currently available in the United States on video cassette (subtitled).

Hsin Hsin Ming, the Book of Nothing: Discourses on the Faith Mind of Sosan


Osho - 1983
    Here is an alive, contemporary Zen master at work --and as the meaning of Sosan's teachings are unraveled, so are the habitualpatterns and prejudices of the reader's mind. Furthermore, Osho's work isso subtle and delicate, the surgery is performed almost before you know it.As you turn the last page, you may suddenly realize that you'll never againbe quite so captivated by your own inner chatter -- and without any effortyou've taken the first, vital step towards meditation.Review from sannyas dot org:"If I were to save only two books from the whole world of the mystics, one would be Sosan's Hsin Hsin Ming," Osho says. "It contains the quintessence of Zen, the path of awareness and meditation...the very soul of Zen." Himself a master of both words and silence, Osho builds a bridge between the modern, chattering mind and the infinite no-mind of Sosan through these Zen sutras - the only words uttered by Sosan, the 6th-century Chinese mystic and third Chinese patriarch.SubjectZen and Zen MastersTranslated fromNotesOriginal book title "Neither This Nor That".Time Period of Osho's original Discourses/Talks/Lettersfrom Oct 21, 1974 to Oct 30, 1974Number of Discourses/Chapters10

ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings


Mary Kawena Pukui - 1983
    This book is a treasure of more than 3,000 proverbs and sayings displaying the knowledge, compassion, foibles, humor, morality, and beliefs of the Hawaiian people.

A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane


Barry Yourgrau - 1983
    Here are dreamscapes compressed into razor-sharp prose, where a twelve inch girl lolls in her date's spaghetti, where a warrior steps out of the Iliadas an intruder in a backyard swimming pool, where a man climbs inside a cow on a bet.Hilarious, subversive, and uniquely entertaining, Yourgrau treats readers to a circus of surreal, impish beauty, poignant flashes of tragedy, and a headstand of everyday reality.

Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Study of the Novel Until 1940


Resil B. Mojares - 1983
    It marks out lines of descent, identifies shifts in modes of narrative representation, considers literary changes in relation to the larger society, and thus offers the reader with a view of the novel not only in itself but also in history.